$200,000 to battle sexual assault in youth prisons

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2014 at 10:04 AM

Ohio's youth prisons, which were labeled among the worst in the nation for inmate sexual assaults last year, will spend $200,000 on a consultant to develop a "zero-tolerance culture" in state facilities.

Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio’s youth prisons, which were labeled among the worst in the nation for inmate sexual assaults last year, will spend $200,000 on a consultant to develop a “zero-tolerance culture” in state facilities.

The state Controlling Board authorized the Ohio Department of Youth Services yesterday to spend $74,930 this year and $124,930 next year to get expert help in complying with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. The state will contract with the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, a nonprofit organization that works with government and other entities on criminal-justice systems. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Justice.

State officials, including Gov. John Kasich, said they were stunned by the findings in a report by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics in June that ranked Ohio among four states with the highest rates of sexual assaults against juveniles.

The Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility was second-worst in the nation, as 30.3 percent of its inmates reported being victimized in 2012. The Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility (23.2 percent) and Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility (19.8 percent) were among 13 facilities with the highest rates, the federal report showed. The national average was 9.5 percent.

Kasich responded by setting up a four-agency emergency task force. It’s headed by Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and involves the adult prison system and the Youth Services, Job and Family Services and Public Safety departments. The youth agency assigned assessors to each of the four Ohio juvenile corrections facilities.

Youth Services Director Harvey Reed told a federal panel in January that his department had made several changes, including the installation of 130 surveillance cameras.